The Inspiration of Hope in Bereavement Counselling

The Inspiration of Hope in Bereavement Counselling

The Inspiration of Hope in Bereavement Counselling

Synopsis

"This book brings together empirical research and theoretical thinking on hope to give practical guidance to professionals working with the bereaved. John R. Cutcliffe takes into account evidence-based practice, describing not only what we know about the role played by hope, but also how we know about it." "The text builds on the requirements of practitioners consulted in its development, identifying and examining the dynamics, principles and social processes involved in bereavement counselling and helping practitioners to understand how they can break through grief, anger and despair to inspire hope in their clients. In addition it covers the wider implications of hope-centred counselling on training and policy." "Taking in a variety of sources from philosophy to health policy, this book gives a unique and comprehensive view of the developments and possibilities in hope-inspiring bereavement counselling, providing a wealth of advice and guidance for practitioners at all levels." Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Excerpt

After 30 years of counselling those who have experienced loss and despairing levels of hopelessness, the complexity of the process of grieving never ceases to command my respect. There are no recipes, yet there are patterns we come to know as veterans. There are stories that tug at our hearts. There is pain we question if we could ourselves bear. Privileged to be part of a private transformation we enter a relationship intending to help.

Counselling has a complexity that will continue to unfold for decades yet to come. The human relationship including the helping relationship, remains partially in the territory of the intangible. By accepting the challenge of researching what is essentially an art, John has invited us to reflect on our practice and our science. He has risked going beyond the what to the how. In fields of disciplined inquiry there is often the temptation to make important what we can empirically study in conventional ways. The challenge accepted in the study that forms the backdrop to this book is to study what is important. Mining the tacit knowledge of experienced therapists, he has sought to make explicit what we tend to know implicitly. In so doing, he has, I believe, accurately named a core task of counselling, if not the core task.

The Inspiration of Hope in Bereavement Counselling stimulates the reflective practitioner to a multitude of questions. By questioning we enhance our capacities to be of assistance to those who suffer from loss. In this text the questions are not forced upon us but rather emerge from the interface of our counselling experience and the views presented.

John gives us the first question, ‘What is hope?’ After an introduction to selected views, the question arises, ‘With what theoretical and philosophical stance do I align? Are there other views of hope not . . .